Starting with Zaozi Ge, a dream lineup

Chapter 217 History Changes, Old Acquaintances of LCK

After everyone finished their battles and enjoyed a comfortable vacation in Europe, the League of Legends esports scene in China also entered a period of calm.

The Summer Split officially kicked off on June 11th, with the Spring Split runner-up IG and e-commerce team JDG leading the charge.

With no matches to watch, the enthusiasm of players and the popularity of League of Legends seem to have declined, but the truth is that everyone is secretly looking forward to the upcoming Jakarta Asian Games.

Just at the beginning of June, an official announcement from League of Legends completely blew up the League of Legends community.

The content is very simple.

Starting today, a three-day period will be dedicated to gathering coaches and analysts from various clubs to jointly vote and discuss the shortlist of candidates and select the final roster of athletes to participate in the Asian Games.

In accordance with the rules of the International Olympic Committee, each team is allowed to bring seven athletes to the field.

The final roster consists of five main players and two substitutes, and the list is submitted for review. Once approved, the roster can proceed to Jakarta to familiarize themselves with the environment.

There have been reports about the Asian Games before, but only a general overview was given, and even the specific schedule and participation methods were not determined.

Moreover, there are a series of related issues. The competition segments of the Asian Games will definitely be broadcast. Will CCTV broadcast the e-sports competition live? Will it give this industry coverage?

These issues were indeed acute at the Asian Games in the previous life.

This complete announcement undoubtedly represents the official expression of positive support.

Although the regulations are still very restrictive and do not promote esports competitions, an opportunity has been given to esports to create some space.

CCTV5 Sports Channel will broadcast the finals live simultaneously during the two games.

The butterfly effect brought about by Li Luo's rebirth has finally begun to affect the national level.

Only two games were successfully selected for the Asian Games. One was League of Legends, which saw a surge in popularity after winning the championship last year, bringing this emerging industry to the forefront of everyone's attention.

Furthermore, a series of standardized training regulations were subsequently introduced within the professional player community, transforming League of Legends professional competition into a sustainable and green profession.

Furthermore, not long ago, MSI's actual viewership on various platforms exceeded 3000 million. With all these factors combined, others have finally seen the potential of this industry.

However, the people at the General Administration of Sport are still completely clueless about how to operate this emerging industry of esports.

Unlike traditional sports, esports doesn't select players based on performance. Considerations such as current form and experience in major competitions are not very clear.

Therefore, they began to recruit analysts and coaches from various teams to form an advisory group.

The selection process does not involve online voting. Instead, it is based on the opinions of these individuals, and a shortlist is compiled according to the contestants' performance and competition data.

Then, the candidates on this shortlist will undergo a training camp selection process.

Although the process was slightly different, it was not much different from the Asian Games selection process in my previous life.

The primary consideration in the rigorous selection criteria remains the contestant's personal ability, while factors such as fame and influence are minimized.

Many contestants with a lot of memes might not be selected, but talented contestants will definitely not be overlooked.

After winning the MSI championship in S8, League of Legends has achieved its biggest strategic goal: in terms of popularity, it has completely defeated PUBG, especially in China, where it has overwhelmingly crushed many other games.

What's lacking now is mainstream societal recognition of esports and awareness of this sunrise industry.

As soon as the news came in, our little brothers in Europe and America sent their blessings.

Only Asian teams can participate in the Asian Games, therefore teams from Europe, America, and North America are ineligible for the competition.

"Hey, puppy, get back to the game right now! You've been on vacation for half a month, hurry up and get back in shape!"

Early in the morning, Mingkai called. He had checked the time difference and deliberately chose to call in the evening, as it was still afternoon in China.

"You know what, after watching you show off at MSI these past few days, I never expected that Jian Zihao, we'd be playing together again."

Mingkai sounded excited, clearly having learned inside information that was previously unknown to others.

In reality, the selection process for both Nakano and Nakano is just a formality.

The Uzi+Ming combination in the bottom lane needs no further explanation.

The jungler definitely needs to bring a substitute to prevent the opponent from targeting them. Xiangguo must go. Among the remaining strong domestic junglers, only Mingkai is strong and experienced.

The selection process for positions began yesterday, and by the afternoon, some information must have leaked out.

"Other positions were controversial, but our resignation was decided almost immediately after everyone mentioned it."

No one would question this. Looking back at the LPL over the past few years, Uzi's strength is the most unquestionable among all players. Especially now, whether it is honors or performance, no other ADC has the courage to compete with him.

If Uzi's ID isn't on the roster after it's finalized, it will definitely spark another wave of criticism from tens of thousands of people.

As for the upper-middle positions, there is controversy surrounding them.

In the top lane position, Lemte ranks among the top in terms of both honors and experience, and can be said to be the most renowned top laner among LPL domestic players.

However, the rules this time also state that the selection criteria will still focus on raw strength, and other factors can only be used as a reference. Therefore, he may not be able to stand out when facing several strong solo-kill top laners, such as Flandre and Wolf from the e-commerce team SN.

The mid-lane position is where the most controversy arises.

Xiaohu, as the cornerstone of RNG's championship and a two-time champion, should theoretically be beyond dispute.

But what's strange is that before winning the S7 championship, Xiaohu was known as a big-game loser. Even after winning two championships, he still couldn't change everyone's opinion of him.

Regarding Xiaohu's performance in major competitions, fans today might not criticize him for being fierce in domestic matches but weak in international ones. However, compared to another domestic mid-laner, Xiye, his performance has generated controversy.

Xiye is also a well-known player who excels in major competitions. He rarely underperforms in world-class matches.

Besides these well-known players, there may also be some upsets on the list.

Players like Zuo Shou, who has performed brilliantly in the mid lane, and Ya Gao are both qualified to be nominated.

Regardless, now that Mingkai has called, RNG's vacation is coming to an end.

We set off late at night, and after a good night's sleep, everyone arrived at the Capital Airport on time at 11 a.m.

Upon seeing that the driver who came to pick them up was Brother Feng, everyone jokingly climbed into the car, but one sentence from Brother Feng stunned everyone except the two people on the lower road.

"Something's gone wrong. Get back to base and train right away. The higher-ups are taking this very seriously!"

Brother Feng stared at the group with a serious expression and said something, urging them to get in the car quickly and drive off towards the base.

"The selection process has been moved up. Originally, there was still a week before the selection would begin, but now, in two days, the General Administration will start the first round of selection, which will be a best-of-ten (BO10) match." "BO10?"

"Just use your phones to access the WeChat group; I've already shared it there."

Upon hearing this, the group opened their phones, logged into WeChat, and scrolled through their chat history to finally understand what had happened.

The Jakarta Asian Games will begin on June 8th, with a tight schedule of two days.

Even without extra matches, an optimistic estimate would be that it would take at least 12 matches to win the championship.

Two days and twelve matches seem like an easy schedule, with only six matches per day. Apart from the pressure of playing against the South Korean national team, the other national teams can basically dominate in Asia.

However, considering risk control, if any link in the chain goes wrong, the schedule will be extended to 15, 18, or even 21 games.

The General Administration of Sport naturally took physical fitness into account with this competition schedule, so it started the selection process ahead of schedule.

This time, physical fitness and mental state actually accounted for 25% of the entire scoring system.

"How serious!"

Unlike the three-day competition in the previous life, this competition is more intense and will test the contestants' strength even more.

As for the LCK roster, unlike the domestic roster, they have already submitted their list.

This speed is naturally attributable to South Korea's more complete and well-developed esports system compared to China.

Of course, there is another factor: the strong players in the LCK are obvious, and there are no foreign players.

It should be noted that foreign players are not allowed in any international or national-level competitions.

Competitions like the Asian Games and the Olympics are of course not allowed to have foreign players.

In the previous LCK roster, the LCK players were: Kkin, Score, Peanut, Faker, Ruler, and CoreJJ.

Upon seeing this list, many people, including professional players at the time, expressed surprise.

First of all, Faker's selection was expected. After all, it would be a bit unreasonable if the current number one player in League of Legends didn't qualify for the Asian Games.

However, the team's choice of Kkin for the top lane position has puzzled many people, as many may not be familiar with this player.

KKin is the current top laner for AFS. He only debuted in 17, and although AFS achieved a decent result in the LCK Spring Split of S8, KKin's performance was really disappointing.

Compared to veteran top laners like Smeb, he's several levels below, so his choice of the top lane position is really hard to understand.

Secondly, there are some questions about the jungler position. If it's purely an exhibition match, Ambition should be the most popular choice to be selected. It's really puzzling that Peanut, who was just questioned at MSI, made the list.

However, KT's Score is still a good player, performing exceptionally well in this year's Spring Split. Of course, some netizens also believe that the retired Bengi should be brought back to partner with Faker, since this classic duo hasn't been seen together for many years.

As for the bot lane duo, Ruler's selection is almost a no-brainer. After Pray was completely salvaged by Uzi, Ruler has basically become the face of the LCK bot lane. However, CoreJJ in the support position has also been criticized by netizens.

As we all know, LCK has no shortage of support players. Current players like Mata and Wolf have much more experience and skill than CoreJJ. It's hard to understand why CoreJJ, who was originally an AD carry, switched to support.

Therefore, LCK made a terrible mistake in choosing the Asian Games venue for S8.

But after a series of changes, Li Luo nodded upon seeing the current official LCK roster.

upper unit - semb
Jungler - Ambition
Mid unit - Faker
ADC position - Deft
Support - Mata
Three members of KT, one member of SKT, and Ambition from Samsung formed the first team for the LCK main event.

Although we haven't seen who the two substitutes are, with the current lineup, they can completely crush that so-called "South Korean team" from back then.

"Awesome, the Korean bot lane is in for a treat now."

"This is the dream lineup for the Korean team!"

Feng, sitting in the front row, was not surprised by the reactions of the others, because when he first saw the South Korean team's roster, he also felt a sense of threat.

Because of their high salaries, these star players rarely team up for competition, except for entertainment events like the All-Star Game. In international official competitions, everyone has to give it their all.

Of the players on this list, everyone except Semb in the top lane was a familiar face, as they hadn't encountered him between S7 and S8.

Mata was even a former teammate!
Semb, the top laner, was known as the best top laner in Korea during the S6-S8 period.

Despite the decline of the new generation of top laners, with players like Khan, Huni, and Duke challenging Semb, Semb still holds a significant advantage in terms of skillful execution and contribution to the team.

Even at the S8 World Championship, although Semb was not as good as TheShy, he was still able to easily dominate Duke.

If it weren't for TheShy's sudden emergence, S8 would have been Semb's best chance to prove himself.

His peak performance was inseparable from a jungler who was willing to sacrifice his own economy to give the top laner room to develop.

Take KT's current jungler Score as an example. In S8, Score's three most played junglers were Rek'Sai, Sejuani, and Gragas.

These three junglers have one thing in common: they can help the top laner relieve pressure on the tank.

In casual games, it's easy to find yourself in a situation where you're the fifth-ranked top laner because your teammates have picked four squishy champions, leaving you with no choice but to pick a tank.

This situation is not uncommon in professional matches, especially in the LCK.

Ambition is known for his exceptional control of the jungle and map awareness. Although Samsung's performance in S8 was not very impressive, the opportunity was still given to Ambition considering various factors.

The substitute position will likely be given to the jungler.

Xiangguo hesitated for a moment, then said uncertainly.

It's important to know that the current version isn't very friendly to traditional junglers like Ambition. If the Korean team's coach has any sense, he will most likely bring in an aggressive jungler to replace him.

Among the most famous aggressive junglers currently playing for the Korean team, the one most likely to be selected is...
"You mean Peanut is most likely to be a substitute?"

An aggressive jungler combined with Semb would be formidable.

In the LCK Spring Split of S8, due to the fact that Rat King was hospitalized after being beaten, and Hanzi was poached by SKT, KZ, who was originally going to enter MSI, had to settle for fourth place in the LCK standings.

The reason he was able to maintain his fourth-place position was entirely due to Peanut's individual strength.

In 68% of the games he played in the Spring Split, Peanut chose the jungle carry playstyle.

They were all familiar faces, and after looking at the list, they finally understood why the General Administration of Sport had started the training camp ahead of schedule.

During their time in Europe, RNG's players trained for no more than three hours a day, while the LCK had already selected their players and started intensive training. How could the leaders not be anxious?
(End of this chapter)